DOOARS…NORTH BENGAL…THE HEAVEN NEXT DOOR……..

I was born in Jalpaiguri in the year 1961. During that time Jalpaiguri was the only town then which had a commiserate where this town had an income tax commissioner. From my grandfather, I use to hear about places like Lataguri, Odlabari, Madarihat and so on and my mother would say that one must visit these places as they are nothing less than heaven on earth. I was too young and small then and never felt the need to visit these places as I was happy to be with my grandparents. Leaving me with my grandparents my mother and father went to Garumara forest but it made no difference to me then.

Then came 2009 when I was by then well placed as a flyer in Air India and got into the intoxicating hobby of photography. I went to various places, the Himalayas being one and the forests being the other.

In 2017, by now I had a group of likeminded colleagues, and we visited the DOOARS. As soon as we crossed the Sevak Bridge and my vehicle turned right onwards to lataguri I remembered the famous Pashtu saying.  “Gar firdaus bar-rue zamin ast, hami asto ,hamin asto,hamin asto”. If translated it means ‘IF THERE IS HEAVEN ON EARTH, IT IS HERE ,IT IS HERE,IT IS HERE”. DOOARS is actually the most beautiful, spiritual, caring and yet daunting part of NATURE AND INDIA.

The sights, the pathways, the roads and the surrounding, tall trees lining on both sides of the road, an occasional elephant crossing the road all added to the grandeur of NORTH BENGAL, DOOARS.

The Dooars or Duars are the alluvial floodplains in northeastern India that lie south of the outer foothills of the Himalayas and north of the Brahmaputra River basin. This region is about 30 km (19 mi) wide and stretches over about 350 km (220 mi) from the Teesta River in West Bengal to the Dhanshiri River in Assam. The region forms the gateway to Bhutan It is part of the Terai-Dua savanna and grasslands ecoregion.

Dooars means 'doors' in Assamese, Bengali, Maithili, Bhojpuri, and Magahi languages. There are 18 passages or gateways between the hills in Bhutan and the plains in India. This the region is divided by the Sankosh River into Eastern and Western Dooars, consisting of an area of 880 km² (340 sq mi). The Western Dooars are also known as the Bengal Dooars, and the Eastern Dooars also as the Assam Dooars. Dooars is analogous with the Terai in northern India and southern Nepal.

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The Dooars belonged to the Kamata Kingdom under the Koch dynasty; and taking advantage of the weakness of the Koch kingdom in subsequent times, Bhutan took possession of the Dooars. This region was controlled by the kingdom of Bhutan when the British annexed it in 1865 after the Bhutan War under the command of Captain Hedayat Ali. The area was divided into two parts: the eastern part was merged with Goalpara district in Assam and the western part was turned into a new district named Western Dooars. Again in the year 1869, the name was changed to Jalpaiguri District. After the end of the British rule in India in 1947, the Dooars acceded into the dominion of India and it merged with the Union of India shortly afterwards in 1949.

The altitude of Dooars area ranges from 90 to 1,750 m. Innumerable streams and rivers flow through these fertile plains from the mountains of Bhutan. In Assam, the major rivers are the Brahmaputra and Manas. In northern West Bengal, the major river is the Teesta besides many others like the Jaldhaka, Murti, Torsha, Sankosh, Dyna, Karatoya, Raidak, and Kalchini rivers, among others.

The beauty of the region lies not only in its tea gardens but also in the dense jungles that make up the entire Dooars. Many wildlife sanctuaries and national park like Manas National Park in Assam, Jaldapara National Park, Buxa National Park, Gorumara National Park, Chapramari Wildlife Reserve and the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary in West Bengal is located in this region. The Dooars are also home to some unique flowers that one may not find anywhere else. These are wildflowers but they are so uniquely beautiful that it sure catches your eyes.

In Jaldapara we stayed in the Jaldapara wildlife resort managed by West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation (WBTDC) and it was dark by the time we got there so I clicked some night time pictures of the place. It is probably one of the many best places that I have stayed in.

A number of rare endangered species of animals like tiger, rhinoceros and elephant make their habitat in the forests of the Dooars. Other animal includes different types of deer, bison, birds and reptiles. A railway line runs through the tea gardens and the various protected areas and a number of elephants have been killed in collisions with trains. I was lucky enough to shoot the wild tusker in Musth, the Gaur, the Indian Bison and a Rhinocerous

I do need to share with all, that in spite of the huge natural repertoire for developing a successful tourism industry in the Dooars I found that the ever greedy lobby of developers probably deforesting the forests as I saw ample evidence of it. Currently, there seems to be a spate of construction along the river Murti just a kilometre from Garumara forests. If such blatant acts keep on happening then the pristine and beautiful Dooars may be lost forever.

My visit to DOOARS was 56 years after my birth and my initiation to the very name DOOARS. I do not regret the loss of time because then probably I would not have appreciated the essence, value, and the beauty of Nature and life therein. I would not have felt anything about the place then. Now that I have been there as an adult and as a person with cognitive thoughts I realize how minuscule I am in the design of nature, How small I am in front of the power of Nature and how spiritual and caring Nature is.. NATURE SURE IS THE ULTIMATE ARTIST.